Kang Hoon-sik, the former presidential chief of staff, urged aides to strengthen South Korea's startup ecosystem before leaving the Blue House, according to officials. Kang, who led a parliamentary startup support group during his time as a lawmaker, appeared to back the sector until his final days in office.
Kang chaired his last meeting of senior secretaries at the Blue House on the 12th, a presidential office official said on the 16th. Startup support was on the agenda. Participants reviewed the status of domestic startup programs, support measures and areas for improvement, including "Startup for All," a venture project launched by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
At the meeting, Kang said the government should build a foundation that allows the startup boom to spread nationwide, according to officials. The remarks were seen as a call for state-backed startup programs to go beyond one-off initiatives and ultimately reinforce the broader ecosystem. "Kang has taken an interest in this field and worked on it since his days in the National Assembly, and he appears to have wanted to leave a message on startup support as chief of staff as well," a ruling party official said.
Kang spearheaded the launch of Unicorn Farm, a startup support and research group in the National Assembly, hosting multiple forums with startups across various sectors and pushing related legislation. Unicorn Farm was founded in 2020 as an informal group of Democratic Party lawmakers but expanded into a bipartisan body after it was formally registered as a parliamentary research group open to lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties. Kang also introduced an amendment to the Medical Service Act that gave the health and welfare minister grounds to demand revisions when medical advertising review standards conflict with related laws.
Lawmakers who worked with him at Unicorn Farm have also taken key posts in the Lee Jae-myung administration. Among them are Lee So-young, minister of SMEs and startups, and Lee Hae-min, senior presidential secretary for AI and future planning.
Meanwhile, calls within the ruling party for Kang to run for Seoul mayor have grown since he stepped down as chief of staff the previous day. After his resignation was accepted, Kang shared his reflections on Facebook, saying, "The Blue House will always maintain unbroken ranks, regardless of my personal path."